Rockies win fourth straight series behind Freeland's gutsy outing

DENVER – Everyone in the Colorado Rockies clubhouse likes the days when Kyle Freeland pitches. And this was one of those days.

Reeling just a few days ago from having lost nine straight at home to division rivals, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Rockies fed off the energy of their young starter to win the game 5-1 and take their fourth straight series.

The bullpen allowed just two baserunners—both coming against inarguably their best reliever—and the offense wore down Robbie Ray until finally breaking through late with some clutch pinch-hitting.

It wasn’t the best outing of Freeland’s season, but it might have been the gutsiest. Battling all afternoon with a determined Diamondbacks lineup, he needed every pitch in his arsenal to get through just over five innings, but every time he had a chance to fold, he instead rose to the moment.

The battle began right away.

Freeland got ahead of Jon Jay 1-2 but a pitch ran too far inside and plunked him in the first at-bat of the game. As almost always seems to happen when the leadoff man gets aboard by means other than a hit, he came around to score on a pair of well struck, but still perfectly placed groundball singles from Paul Goldschmidt and A.J. Pollock.

Before the dust settled on the first, Freeland had given up a run and thrown 27 pitches but he battled through and despite the Diamondbacks stringing together quality at-bat after quality at-bat, would not give in for the rest of the game.

He did find trouble again in the fourth when Steven Souza Jr. led off by tripling into the left-center field gap to lead off the frame. But Freeland heightened his focus, striking out Ketel Marte and John Ryan Murphy in quick succession before intentionally walking Chris Owings. Freeland caught his counterpart looking to strand Souza at third, striking out the side.

He was pitching with a runner in scoring position once again in the fifth after a one-out double from Nick Ahmed, but got out of it with a lineout from Goldschmidt and a fly out from Pollock featuring a nice running catch on the track by Noel Cuevas in left.

The Rockies missed out again in the bottom of the fifth. DJ LeMahieu led off with a single, but Charlie Blackmon and Nolan Arenado both struck out. LeMahieu then took second base, his fifth stolen bag of the season, to give Trevor Story a chance to score him with a single. But, like Freeland in the top half, Ray made it three Ks in an inning by getting Story on strikes.

The Diamondbacks and Souza were at it again with a leadoff, ground-rule double in the top of the sixth to nearly the same spot he hit the triple. After a screaming liner off the bat of Marte was caught on a lunge by Arenado at third, Bud Black decided that would be it for Freeland, turning to Scott Oberg in a tight spot in a tight game.

Oberg’s first pitch got away from Chris Iannetta, allowing Souza to advance to third but once again Arenado came to the rescue with one of his best plays of the season.

Murphy hit a hard grounder right at his pulled-in position. It was hit so hard, in fact, that the Gold Glover was unable to field it cleanly as the ball hopped off the heel of his glove. Without hesitation, Arenado snatched the ball out of the air with his bare hand and in one motion fired a strike to the plate, comfortably beating Souza for the second out of the inning. Oberg struck out Owings too keep the game at 1-0.

Observe:

Gold glove or gold hand?

Holy Noly. #NolanBeingNolan ? pic.twitter.com/MjEg4jRbSw

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) July 12, 2018

Ray was cruising through five, though patience from the Rockies elevated his pitch count. Then he began the sixth by hitting Carlos Gonzalez with a pitch. Like Freeland in the first, this turned out to be a bad omen for the pitcher. Iannetta followed by drawing a walk in a great at-bat and Torey Luvollo went to his bullpen.

Going to lefty Andrew Chafin, Black countered by pinch-hitting Gerardo Parra for Cuevas. The moved paid off when Parra singled through the right side—again not unlike the hits the Diamondbacks scored on in the first—to score CarGo from second and tie the game.

Raimel Tapia then came on in the pitcher’s spot for the biggest at-bat of his season. He fouled off the first pitch but went down and got an offspeed offering below the zone on the second, lifting it into shallow right field to score Iannetta and move Parra to third, giving his club a 2-1 lead.

LeMahieu added one with a productive out on a sac fly to straightaway right field.

Chris Rusin came on to pitch the seventh and got quick outs from Daniel Descalso and Jay before making way for Adam Ottavino who threw one pitch to Ahmed for a line out to right.

The Rockies got an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh on a solo shot over the high wall in right-center from Trevor Story. It was the first-time All-Star’s 18th home run of the season. They added another when Desmond walked, stole second for the 10th time this season, and scored on a single to center from CarGo, his seventh RBI in the last two games.

Otto stayed on for the eighth and surrendered a leadoff single to Goldschmidt and a two-out walk (getting squeezed a bit) to Marte but struck out Murphy to strand them both.

Wade Davis came on in the ninth and locked down the win with a 1-2-3 inning.

Colorado improved to 48-45 and are now just 2.5 games back of first place in the NL West.

Final Stats:

Kyle Freeland: 5.1 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K

Scott Oberg: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

Chris Rusin: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

Adam Ottavino: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K

What’s Next:

The Rockies rematch with the Seattle Mariners, against whom they won two of three just last week, begins on Friday. Antonio Senzatela will face off against a pitcher who has yet to be announced. First pitch at 6:40 Mountain Time.